Overview

In the A. W. Tozer Upgrade Collection, James L. Snyder, an authority on Tozer’s life and ministry, presents never-before-published teachings by the renowned twentieth-century pastor and theologian. The collection contains insights on

The Cross’ significance

Spiritual laziness

The testing of believers’ faith

The Holy Spirit’s transformational work

What it means to be a Christian

The purpose of prophesy

And more!

These timeless insights will challenge and encourage you on your spiritual walk with Christ. The collection also includes Tozer’s biography. The Logos Bible Software edition of the A. W. Tozer Upgrade Collection is designed to encourage and stimulate your study and understanding of the Christian life. Scripture passages link directly to your English translations and to the original language texts, and important concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. In addition, you can perform powerful searches by topic and find what other authors, scholars, and theologians have to say about the Holy Spirit, the Incarnation, and faith.

The Life of A. W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God

A.W. Tozer’s spiritual legacy continues today as his writings challenge readers to a deeper relationship and worship of God in reverence and adoration. To understand this continued and far-reaching ministry, it is important to know who he was, including his relationship with God. Here is Tozer’s life story, from boyhood and his conversion at age 17, to his years of pastoring and writing more than 40 books, at least two regarded as Christian classics that continue to appear on bestseller lists today.

Learn from a prophet with much to say about the compromises he observed in contemporary Christian living and the hope he found in his incredible God. The Life of A. W. Tozer gives a behind-the-scenes look at the man and his message. We see God at work with hammer and chisel to shape Tozer’s life into a vessel capable of influencing all who desire to walk with God.

The Crucified Life: How to Live Out a Deeper Christian Experience

What does it mean to be “crucified with Christ”? During his lifetime, renowned teacher A. W. Tozer was often invited to speak at seminaries, churches, and Bible conferences on the topic of the cross and its meaning for the Christian life. Now, in this never-before-published distillation of his best teaching on the subject, you will gain a fresh understanding of the cross’ centrality to your walk of faith in Christ.

The Apostle Paul declared in his letter to the Galatians that he had been “crucified with Christ.” But what does that mean? Is this a claim every believer can and should make? The Crucified Life is a comprehensive examination of these questions, answered with the deep, biblical thinking for which Tozer is revered. “God is ingenious in developing crosses for his followers,” Tozer was fond of saying. At the heart of this book, you will find a call to follow Christ to the cross and be raised to new life—a call to live the crucified life.

The Dangers of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy

Spiritual lethargy is one of the greatest dangers to confront a believer in his or her day-to-day walk with God. A. W. Tozer said, “There are only three directions from which danger comes to the Christian life. They are the world through which we journey, the god of this world, and our own mortified flesh.”

In this never-before-published book, the renowned teacher issues a clarion call for all Christians to awaken to the times in which we live and stand boldly against spiritual and moral slumber. Tozer’s focus is on those few believers who will heed the call to arouse themselves rise up in the face of the great temptation to malaise that is before us, believing that God always begins with one or two who hear and heed his voice, and refuse to become weary in their pursuit of him.

A Disruptive Faith: Expect God to Interrupt Your Life

The word “faith” is common these days, but placing one’s faith in God is a weighty action, uncommonly fraught with consequence and, by his design, inconvenience. Faith in God is reassuring and comforting only insofar as believers trust Him—and that depth of trust is the mark of a mature Christian who has allowed faith to intrude on his life and shift his gaze away from his own aims, needs and desires. This is nothing if not a painful and disturbing process.

A Disruptive Faith is A. W. Tozer’s never-before-published teaching on what he termed “faith that perturbs”—faith that contradicts the unbelieving man and threatens the complacency of the Christian. The renowned pastor and teacher insists in these pages that genuine faith breeds dissatisfaction with this life, by God’s design; it weans us from this temporary life and prepares us for the life to come. Readers will learn to be content with this faith-inspired discontent and to experience a fresh hope for eternity with God.

Experiencing the Presence of God: Teachings from the Book of Hebrews

Deep in the soul of every person on earth is a longing for the presence of God. But how do we get there? Experiencing the Presence of God is a never-before-published collection of teachings from A. W. Tozer on the book of Hebrews that shows us the way. Tozer, the renowned pastor and theologian, challenges our status quo, invites us to explore a fresh understanding of what it means to dwell in God’s presence, and leads us to experience the divine fulfillment for which we were created!

As Tozer says, “We should come to church not anticipating entertainment but expecting the high and holy manifestation of God’s presence. . . . Worship is not some performance we do, but a presence we experience.” Come alongside Tozer and enter into God’s presence right now.

God’s Power for Your Life: How the Holy Spirit Transforms You through God’s Word

A. W. Tozer, one of the twentieth-century church’s most profound thinkers and pastors, believed that reading the Bible wasn’t enough—the Word must come alive in the Christian’s life. It isn’t enough to read Scripture and then try to obey its commands; rather, living by the power of the Word is a Spirit-enabled transformation that leads to the Word becoming incarnate within the believer’s life. In God’s Power for Your Life, Tozer teaches readers how to allow themselves to be shaped by the Spirit’s work as they study the Word of God.

And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John

In this day of soundbytes and celebrity gossip, there are far too few opportunities to pull away from the daily grind and really contemplate the deep mysteries of God. But here’s such a thought: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

If John’s sparsely worded (but densely packed) statement describing the incarnation of God does not press against your capacity to feel wonder and awe, then consider this: How could deity—with no beginning and no end—cross the gulf separating what is God from what is not God? How could the infinite ever become the finite? How could that which has no limit deliberately impose upon himself limitations? Great is the mystery of the Incarnation.

And He Dwelt among Us presents Dr. Tozer’s voice in a unique way—as a great teacher who appreciates the mystical nature of John’s Gospel while keeping his feet on solid doctrinal ground. His Spirit-led explanations will help your thoughts rise to the rarefied atmosphere of adoration of the One who became flesh so that we could know him, become his, and worship him forever.

Living as a Christian: Teachings from First Peter

What makes Christians different from everyone else? Countless misconceptions prevail in our culture, and even in the church, about what it means to be a Christian—not least the erroneous and all-too-common idea that Christians are just people doing their best to clean up their acts. People have misunderstood this concept throughout church history. The Apostle Peter wrote a letter to a group of early Christians to help them understand not only what had happened when they converted, but also how they should live and what they should believe as people who had been born again. In the hands of eminent teacher A. W. Tozer, Peter’s first letter of pastoral guidance is as timely and relevant to believers today as it surely was for those Christians living in the first century. Living as a Christian will help you embrace your position in Christ as “the pride of all heaven” and show you how to live in the center of God’s redeeming love, able to withstand anything and everything that would seek to undermine your faith.

Preparing for Jesus’ Return: Daily Live the Blessed Hope

Renowned preacher and theologian A. W. Tozer believed that clear, trustworthy, and biblical teaching on end-times prophesies was of paramount importance—not least because in his day, as in ours, there were untrustworthy voices claiming certainty about the time of the Lord’s return. The Christian’s sole focus, he insisted, must not be on predictions but on the Person of Christ.

This volume contains Tozer’s never-before-published teaching on the book of Revelation. Discover his fresh and timely perspective on the purpose of prophesy, which he believed is to lift our gaze from the immediate to the eternal. Preparing for Jesus’ Return offers a panoramic view of what is to come and examines what it means for you, your church, and the world. No one knows when the Lord will return, but the assurance of his coming is our blessed hope!

The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship

A. W. Tozer earned a legendary reputation as a prophetic voice, and he continues to be a bestselling author half a century after his death. A preacher at heart, he found his greatest joy in practicing the presence of God. Worship was his focus and his passion. His sermons were such a strong declaration of what he discovered during private prayer and worship of the triune God, that he had both the ability and the Spirit’s anointing to move his listeners to wrestle with what God was saying to the church. Tozer’s writings carry the same message with the same result to a new generation of worshipers.

The Purpose of Man is the perfect introduction to Tozer. Drawn from messages he called his best teaching, this book will also delight those already familiar with, moved by, and changed by his other classics. What Tozer offers on the subject of worship here in The Purpose of Man will challenge you to reconsider your life’s priorities while at the same time hold out a cup of Living Water for your soul.

Reclaiming Christianity: A Call to Authentic Faith

Until the day he died, A. W. Tozer never deviated from exhorting the church to walk like those who truly belong to the kingdom of God. Although he never softened his censure of what he called “churchianity built around showmanship,” he believed the Church was ripe for reformation, and he longed to see its return to the Holy Spirit-filled, humble, loving fellowship that typified the early church.

If you have ever wondered why the church has little influence in the world today, and, equally, how your life could more closely reflect the powerful witness that characterized the early Christians, Tozer’s flinty and uncompromising words will remind you of what is missing and challenge you to shun what is superficial so that you can walk toward authentic faith.

About A. W. Tozer

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) was born on a small farm in what is now Newburg, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Akron, Ohio, when he was just a young boy. At age 17, Tozer heard a street preacher, responded to the calling of Christ, and began his lifelong pursuit of God. After becoming an active witness of Jesus as a lay preacher, he joined The Christian and Missionary Alliance and was soon serving as the pastor of West Virginia’s Alliance Church. In 1928, he transferred to the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, and his ministry continued there for 31 years. During that time, he preached on the Moody Bible Institute’s radio station. In the 1940s, Tozer was invited to speak at Wheaton College, and seldom a year passed after World War II that he didn‘t preach in the college’s Pierce Chapel. In 1950 he became the editor of The Alliance Life magazine and served in that capacity until his death.

Self-taught, with no formal Bible training, Tozer has been called a twentieth-century prophet within his own lifetime. Through years of diligent study and constant prayer, he sought the mind of God. A master craftsman in the use of the English language, he was able to write in a simple, cogent style the principles of truth he had learned. For Tozer, “there was no substitute for knowing God firsthand.” He wrote many of his books with one idea in mind—that his reader would achieve the heart’s true goal in God and maintain that relationship with Him.

Tozer moved to Toronto in 1959 and spent the final years of his life as the pastor of Avenue Road Church. He and his wife, Ada, lived a simple, non-materialistic lifestyle and let much of the royalties from his books go to those in need. The Tozers had seven children.

About James L. Snyder

James L. Snyder is the pastor of the Family of God Fellowship in Ocala, Florida, a Christian and Missionary Alliance church (1973–present). He is recognized as an authority on the life and ministry of A. W. Tozer, and has written a number of books as well as numerous essays in Christian periodicals about Tozer. He has a weekly radio ministry, writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column carried by 35 newspapers, as well as over a dozen monthly magazines, both online and print.